Florida businesses and institutions need to step up their recycling efforts if the state has any hope of meeting a goal of 75 percent recycled waste. That’s what environmental officials are saying after a recent progress report showed Floridians are recycling less than half of all waste.
At Tallahassee’s Marpan Recycling plant, wooden furniture and construction scraps are processed through Godzilla-size chippers. These recyclables are bigger than the typical household items put out to the curb.
The company’s Bryce Hill says more material coming in recently makes him optimistic about a statewide recycling goal the Legislature set back in 2008.
“I think it’s realistic,” he says. “I think if we can get more facilities like ours—C and D and Class 3 MRFs [material recycling facilities]—to open up and get on board with what we’re doing and recovering all these materials, we would see that recovery rate increase to 75 percent by 2020.”
The Legislature’s plan dictates, by six years from now, only a quarter of waste should go to a landfill. And the state has made gains: Last year, just under half of solid waste was recycled or burned and converted into energy. But most of the increased participation has come from private residences.
“Essentially we’ve picked a lot of the low-hanging fruit in trying to reach the goal, so it’ll become a lot more challenging,” says Department of Environmental Protection Waste Reduction Administrator Ron Hendricks.
He says, yes, more homeowners are recycling—but he says most waste is generated in the commercial sector—that includes businesses, universities and apartment complexes. And they are recycling only about half their waste. So, what’s the likelihood the state meets a 60 percent benchmark goal in two years?
“It’s uncertain at this point if we will or not,” Hendricks says. “It’s going to depend on how aggressive local recycling programs are.”
A couple of local governments have made it mandatory for businesses to recycle. One, Lee County, has the second-highest recycling rate in the state. Lee County Solid Waste Division Director Lindsey Sampson says the first step was making it free for businesses. He bargained with solid waste collectors to include recycling in the cost of trash pickup. And then there are fines for non-recyclers—he says it’s an amount large enough that people wouldn’t want to deal with it but not enough to really punish them.
“If they wanted to be real adamant, it’s not like, it’s not like you’re beating your dog or something like that,” he says.
Sampson says the strategy has worked. Since enacting mandatory recycling, the county hasn’t had to issue any citations, and the recycling rate has risen to 70 percent. But behind that number is more than just traditional recycling, or getting stuff made into other stuff: As the No. 1 recycler, Hillsborough County, has also discovered, stuff can be converted into energy for the community.
Hillsborough County Solid Waste Director Kim Byer says, “We generate about $17 million dollars in energy revenue from that garbage.”
When counties have waste-to-energy plants like these, the Department of Environmental Protection gives them recycling credits—which explains how Hillsborough can be the No. 1 overall recycler but not crack the top-10 list of traditional recyclers.
Still, the overall state rate was a sluggish 49 percent last year. DEP’s Ron Hendricks says he expects he’ll be writing a report for the Legislature soon, outlining recommendations for boosting participation everywhere.
